The past year and a half has seen an impressive new crop of high-design restaurants that demonstrate as much innovation and flair in their architecture and decor as they do in their cuisine. From a sushi mecca in Mexico City that’s wrapped in a laser-cut-steel pavilion to a Michelin-starred monochromatic tour de force at Paris’s Mandarin Oriental hotel to a healthful restaurant in Tokyo’s Ginza whose rustic-mod interiors pay homage to a remote Chinese village, Architectural Digest selected a dozen notable newcomers. All of these spots are, in very distinctive ways, elevating the experience of dining out—in some cases, way out.